About This Project

At a very early age, we learn to cope with our emotions based on the availability of our parents in critical situations. This experience ultimately leads us to behave in certain ways, as a child and later as an adult. I intend to explore how these early social relationships and the thereof resulting personal attachment style influence peoples' innovation behavior within organizations. Is it really our parents' fault when we are unable to be innovative?

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What is the context of this research?

Relationships play a crucial role for humans, but also for organizations. Network theory, for example, teaches us that maintaining social relationships has a positive effect for both individuals and collective teams across companies (3) (11). To further explore the relevance of relationships in organizations, I will use a fundamental psychological theory, attachment theory, that helps us to better understand the emotions and behavior of managers in organizations. Attachments are mental representations of oneself and of others, which center around the availability and responsiveness of others, as well as the worthiness of the self, which inevitably leads to certain behavioral responses in everyday life.

What is the significance of this project?

Organizations face a great deal of uncertainty with a rapidly changing economic and political climate. Functional leadership and strong emotional capabilities may be critical at this time, and identifying qualities of good leaders is crucial for survival of these organizations.
Strategic issues often occur at the top of an organization, i.e. at top management level, and then trickle down the organization. By looking more closely at what happens at the top, how and why managers behave in a certain way, we can hopefully create better organizations that serve all stakeholders involved, including an organization's employees, its customers but also society at large.

What are the goals of the project?

I plan to do an experiment with 120 persons. Participants will be recruited online and through the university.

Experimental design:

Participants will be asked to take part in a small game. Each of the two participant groups will receive different task descriptions, with the treatment group receiving a more demanding task description than the control group. By assessing each participant's individual attachment type using the Experience-In-Close-Relationships (ECR-R) scale by Fraley et al. (6) and evaluating his or her emotional reaction to the task using the Affective Response scale (4), I will be able to conclude how the individual's personal relationships influence his/her behavioral tendencies, in this case, his or her exploration (= innovation) behavior.